The Perfect CD

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Weezer - Blue album
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Bill Evans Trio - You Must Believe In Spring

These are all albums that I can listen to in their entirety and do nothing else. I always have to be doing something with my hands, so that says a lot about how much I enjoy them - especially the Pumpkins record, which is a double album! The first two I started listening to when I was fifteen or sixteen and was the first music I could really relate to, as corny as that sounds, not just the lyrics, but in the music, too; the melodies, the guitar tone, the intricate arrangements, it all just felt right. Anyone else know what I'm talking about - even when there's nothing being sung, the music just fucking feels like you? Or am I nuts?

Opeth, through a mixture of extreme metal with growling vocals and dark folk music with clean vocals is what got me into metal. Blackwater Park was the first album of theirs I heard.

Ben Folds Five are the band that got me into jazz, as well as the ideas of conversational lyrics and stellar musicianship that never feels like showing off. Also another band that musically just feels very right to me.

The Bill Evans record is my favorite of the modest jazz collection I've got going. Though there's plenty of swing to be found, it's largely a very sad record, the tune selection well-suited to his distinctive sort of classically-influenced harmony. This album, and Bill's work in general, really jumped out at me for some reason and really drew me further into jazz. The album also includes the finest, swingingest arrangement of the M*A*S*H theme you'll ever hear in your life.

I'm a nerd.

Jam it back in, in the dark.